Microsoft has announced that support for Office 2016 and Office 2019 will officially end on October 14, 2025, prompting organizations to begin planning their migration to Microsoft 365 Apps.
The company emphasizes that continuing to use these legacy versions after the deadline could result in missing critical security updates and experiencing connectivity issues with Microsoft 365 services.
Organizations using Configuration Manager can utilize the Office 365 Client Management dashboard to identify machines running outdated Office versions and group them into dynamic collections for targeted upgrades. Additionally, Microsoft recommends using the 365 Apps Upgrade Readiness Toolkit to check application compatibility prior to migration.
Microsoft 365 Apps is the cloud-connected version of Office and forms part of the broader Microsoft 365 suite. Unlike perpetual licenses such as Office 2016 and 2019, Microsoft 365 Apps delivers regular feature updates and enhanced integration with cloud services like OneDrive, Teams, and Microsoft Copilot — features that legacy versions cannot fully support.
To support the upgrade, Microsoft provides two main deployment paths:
- Policy-based in-place upgrades: Organizations can use Group Policy or Intune Configuration Service Provider (CSP) settings to seamlessly convert Office 2019 installations into Microsoft 365 Apps. This method leverages existing installations, minimizing deployment overhead. It involves setting specific registry keys, including “VLtoSubscription”=dword:00000001, and specifying the preferred update channel, such as “Current” or “Deferred”.
- Deployment Tool-based installation: For more controlled or large-scale upgrades, IT admins can use the Office Deployment Tool to create customized installation packages. These configurations can uninstall older MSI-based Office installations using the XML element and deploy Microsoft 365 Apps through Configuration Manager or other software distribution platforms.
Microsoft also highlighted several important upgrade considerations. Bandwidth usage during the installation process can be significant, especially in organizations with distributed networks. To address this, features like Delivery Optimization can help reduce network strain. Additionally, administrators must ensure that previous Office update settings — such as those tied to the Office COM application — are adjusted to allow updates from the Office CDN.
Alongside Office, related products like Visio and Project must also be upgraded. Microsoft encourages enterprises to transition to subscription-based plans like Visio Plan 2 or Project Plan 3, which receive ongoing updates. For environments requiring perpetual licenses, the latest supported versions are Visio LTSC 2024 and Project 2024, released in September 2024.
To avoid installation conflicts, Microsoft strongly advises removing older Office versions before deploying Microsoft 365 Apps.
Microsoft provides updated Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) for managing Group Policy settings for Microsoft 365 Apps, which share the same product version (16.0) as Office 2016 and 2019. These templates can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center and include an Excel sheet listing all available policy settings.
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